Part II

Cognitive Neuroscience
Human Learning 75
Aaron S. Benjamin, J. Steven de Belle, Bruce Etnyre, Thad A. Polk
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Introduction

Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning and Memory

Thad Polk
University of Michigan

The chapters in this section focus on the cognitive neuroscience of

learning and memory. As its name suggests, the field of cognitive neu-
roscience attempts to relate cognition to neuroscience, that is, to under-
stand how thought is implemented in the brain. By attempting to relate
aspects of learning and memory to underlying neural mechanisms, these
chapters therefore serve as a bridge between the chapters discussing
learning and memory at the behavioral level and at the neural level.
Perhaps the single most influential finding from the cognitive neu-
roscience of learning and memory is that there are multiple, relatively inde-
pendent memory systems in the human brain. Long-term memory depends on
different neural substrates than does working memory, and working memory
depends on different substrates than does sensory memory. These systems
themselves can be further subdivided at a neural level. Furthermore, the
executive systems that control these memory systems also depend on differ-
ent neural substrates than do the core memory systems themselves.
Not surprisingly, this fractionation of memory into separate neural com-
ponents is a central theme in most of the chapters in this section. For
example, Reber summarizes current research in the cognitive neuroscience
of long-term memory. Starting from the familiar dissociation between
declarative and nondeclarative memory, he discusses patient studies, animal
studies, and imaging studies that shed light on the neural systems that
underlie each. He also reviews evidence on the neural mechanisms that
subserve meta-memory control processes and how these mechanisms inter-
act with the neural systems involved in declarative memory.
The cognitive control of memory is also a central theme in the chapter
by Lustig and Flegal, although their goal is to review the cognitive neu-
roscience of learning and memory from the perspective of aging. Specifically,
76 Part II

they summarize empirical studies illustrating the effects of aging on different

(and often neurally dissociable) memory systems. Their review demonstrates
that control processes play a particularly important role in many different
types of age-related memory changes.
Atkins and Reuter-Lorenz also discuss effects across various memory
systems, although their focus is on emotion rather than aging. They sum-
marize animal studies, patient studies, and imaging studies, illustrating the
dramatic effects that emotions can have on three major learning and
memory systems: implicit (nondeclarative) memory, declarative memory,
and working memory. Their review demonstrates the central role that the
amygdala plays in emotional learning and memory in all three domains.
Bo, Langan, and Seidler focus on the cognitive neuroscience of skill
acquisition in their chapter. They discuss two different types of motor
learning: (1) sensorimotor adaptation (modifying movements in response
to changes in sensory input or motor output requirements) and (2) sequence
learning (learning to combine separate actions in one coherent skill). They
review many of the major theories for both types of motor learning and point
out similarities and differences among the theoretical approaches.
Finally, the chapter by Newman and Polk represents a very different
branch of the cognitive neuroscience of learning and memory, namely the
computational modeling approach. They show how a few well-established
properties of neural computation can interact to give rise to emergent
functionality and how this emergent functionality has been applied to
explain many aspects of learning and memory. They argue that computa-
tional modeling therefore provides the hope of developing a very explicit
bridge from the brain to the mind.
The study of learning and memory is undoubtedly the largest and the
most active area in all of cognitive neuroscience, and these five chapters
certainly do not provide an exhaustive review of the field. Nevertheless,
they do provide a compelling sampling of some of the hot topics in the area.
Furthermore, when read in the context of parallel work in learning and
memory in the other sections of this book, these chapters illustrate many of
the commonalities (and differences) that have been discovered when dif-
ferent approaches are applied to the study of learning and memory.